SAN DIEGO (CNS) – San Diego Family Care announced Friday it has alerted current and former patients and employees about a computer security breach that may have involved their personal information.
Though there is no evidence that anyone’s personal information was misused, the health services provider said it was advising potentially impacted people about the issue, and steps they can take to protect themselves, as a precaution.
The potentially affected data includes names; dates of birth; Social Security numbers or other government identifiers; financial account numbers; medical diagnosis or treatment information; health-insurance information; and client identification numbers, according to SDFC officials.
The issue came to light in December, when officials with SDFC and its business associate, Health Center Partners of Southern California, became aware that their information-technology hosting provider had experienced a data- security irregularity that resulted in the encryption of certain data.
In response, the technology company took steps to secure and restore its systems and launched an investigation with the assistance of computer forensics experts, who determined that some data may have been accessed by an unauthorized party.
SDFC officials then hired experts to conduct a review to identify those whose information may have been involved. Following the conclusion of that process last month, the agency took steps to facilitate the notification of potentially affected people and established a hot line to answer their questions.
Representatives at the toll-free call center can be reached at 833-664-1997 on weekdays between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.
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